Oakland Mayor Jean Quan: Recall efforts will fail

Updated 1:22 pm, Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Mayor Jean Quan walks with fifth grader Sandler Saephan as they join parents and students for the Manzanita Community Peace Walk through the neighborhood near E. 27th Street and Fruitvale, in Oakland, Ca., on Wednesday May 9, 2012. less

Mayor Jean Quan walks with fifth grader Sandler Saephan as they join parents and students for the Manzanita Community Peace Walk through the neighborhood near E. 27th Street and Fruitvale, in Oakland, Ca., on ... more

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan: Recall efforts will fail

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Oakland Mayor Jean Quan held a press conference Wednesday to criticize proponents of a drive to recall her from office, saying they're being divisive.

The mayor, who appeared with a bevy of union leaders at Preservation Park, declined to say exactly how the two separate campaigns to oust her from her seat had divided the city. She suggested that the recall efforts have encouraged unnecessary vitriol in city politics.

"I think that it's raised the rhetoric," she said. "People who are hoping to be candidates are making more extreme comments than they've needed to."

Pressed later about whom she was referring to, Quan didn't offer names.

It's been more than six months since recall proponents began working on their efforts. Much of the momentum for recalling Quan from office was generated by the Occupy Oakland controversy. Quan's handling of the protests angered people on all sides of the political spectrum.

The first notice to distribute a recall petition was filed Oct. 24, the day before police first removed the encampment at City Hall and had violent confrontations with protesters later in the day. On Oct. 26, Quan allowed the camp to return before authorizing police to forcibly remove the camp again Nov. 14.

How much momentum the recall campaign has had since then is unclear.

Quan said labor unions came up for the idea of the press conference. She used the occasion to declare that neither recall campaign would succeed. One, she said, would fail to meet a Thursday deadline. The other, she said, was in financial trouble.

"We know that one petition is going to be done tomorrow," Quan said. "The other one is in debt. They have to have a huge influx of money."

City Clerk LaTonda Simmons said that one campaign had until Monday to file its signatures, while the other has until July 2. If the second petition gets enough valid signatures, the recall would likely be on the Nov. 6 general election, according to timelines provided by Simmons.

Charlie Pine, spokesman for the Committee to Recall Jean Quan, which had the Monday deadline, said his group had stopped gathering signatures in March. "The recall lost, but Mayor Quan did not establish to the people of Oakland that she was a competent mayor," Pine said.

Frank Castro, who is on the executive committee of the Committee to Recall Mayor Quan Now, said his group had collected between 12,000 and 15,000 signatures. They need roughly 20,000 signatures, but hope to collect an additional 5,000 as insurance against disqualified signatures.

Castro said his group is relying on donors he declined to name to pay for signature gatherers. If they fail to come through, that could be a problem.

He disputed the notion that the recall is divisive.

"We're trying to bring the city together," said Castro, who criticized Quan as continuing to make missteps.

Case in point, he said, was the fact state Controller John Chiang is challenging the city's sale of the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center to the city redevelopment agency for $28.3 million just before the redevelopment agencies fell to state control. The move anticipated the fact that the state was planning to dissolve redevelopment agencies. All eight Oakland council members had also supported the sale. Chiang has informed cities across the state that any such transfers of assets must be reversed. In Oakland's case, it would mean the city would owe the $28.3 million to the state.

The city budget states that $5.2 million of that Kaiser sale has already been spent. Nonetheless, City Administrator Deanna Santana said the city currently has a $45 million reserve - more than enough to cover the state's demand.

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